ASSIGNMENT QUESTION:

Read and understand the case study below.

Andrew West started SurfZone in Bondi with the goal of providing good quality surfing

equipment to his customers. To ensure year-round business, Andrew sells both Surfing and

Snow Ski products and he also has a lucrative snow ski hire department that is strongly

patronized by school groups and families. Business has been brisk and he has established a

sizeable client base over the last five years. Andrew thinks that it could be the time to spend

in computer systems to record details about the sales, payroll process and offer more details

about the inventory. Andrew thinks with the implementation of the computer systemsin each

store would help the store in capturing of the sales information & managing of the hiring

details, capturing the details of the customer would help the store manager in forming a

targeted marketing campaign in the future, the computer systems would help the store to

capture the details about the stock sold so that exact stock levels could be known, the

computer systems offers the way to calculate the wages & to electronically pay staff and the

implementation of the computer systems provides useful & relevant data for sales

forecasting. Lastly, some recommendations have been given in order to improve the resolve

the problems for the accounting & payroll problems.

Description of the Problem

Andrew believes that it will be possible to modernize some of the business process for

reducing the amount of time, which it is taking for data processing. Andrew believes that it

can be time to spend in computer systems to record more details about payroll process, sales

and the details about the inventory. It has been analysed that the Andrew wants to open up

six further stores throughout the next three years & any systems used should be capable of

supporting these developments.It has been analysed that no details are captured about the customer only provide details

about the purchased goods, the method of payment, member of the staff, purchased

quantity, price & totals.

It has been analysed that levels of stock are recorded by using the stock card. It can be seen

that the details of the new inventory are entered into the cards when the new stock and

details of sold units are changed at the termination of each trading day. It is very clear that

when things become hectic, marketing off stock sheets can be forgotten and hence they are

not very exact. To know the level of the stock item, the physical check is needed. It has been

observed that the stock take is conducted at random times when Andrew thinks it may be

better to know what is in each of the stores. It has been analysed that when the user returns

the hired items, the member of the staff retrieves the duplicate from the file comprising both

the details of the docket & the information of the credit card. This can be viewed as the

process of time consuming as sometimes dockets are misfiled & users become worried for

the delay. It is very clear that no of complaints have been made by the user on the number of

occasions. At the end of each & every week, the spreadsheet was sent to Andrew who used

it for forecasting of sales & also offers the information to various accountants for completing

the statements of the Business Activity.

Solution Objective

The objective of the solution is to provide assistance to Andrew in solving of various issues

like maintenance of customer details, maintenance of marketing off stock sheets, collection

of useful data for sales forecasting and accurate calculation of wages & to electronically pay

staff. It has been analysed that the implementation of the Computer systems in each of the

three stores helps in capturing of sales information, customer details, maintenance of

marketing off stock sheets, collection of the data for sales forecasting and helps in calculation

of the wages for employees. It is very clear that in recent times, Computer systems help the

Company in operations & controlling function. It helps the Company in maintaining of

operations like calculation of wages, maintenance of ledger and invoicing etc. Another

important feature of the systems helps in analysis of the sales, credit control & budgetary

control. The solution is provided to the Andrew to implement those changes in existing three

stores and open further six stores in the next three years with those changes & developments.

For e.g. in this case each of the three stores, captures sales at the point of purchase by the

cash register machine. There are two machines in each store operated by the sales counter.

The implementation of the computer systems in each store helps in capturing of sales

information without the cash register machine which would help the Ski Zone & Andrew in

minimizing of the cost.

Constraints

It has been analysed that there is a computer system for the assistant and Andrew has a

laptop that he uses to prepare details for the accountant to complete the Business Activity

Statement. He also carries out some analysis on spreadsheets for sales forecasting. It can be

seen that the accountant of each store was maintaining details about the sales, purchase and

inventory manually not on the computer systems. Andrew had decided to implement the

computer systems in each store which became difficult for accountants to make reports as

they were in the habit of making reports manually. It can be said that change in technology

may also be the factor which made the accountant & employee of the Company resistant to change. In general, it is very clear when the company goes for any kind of changes then

employees show reluctance to change.

Developmental Plans

The first & foremost development plan is implementation of the computer systems in each of

the three stores.

For Capturing of the sales information, it can be seen that analysis of the forecasting indulges

the usage of the Accounting Software. It has been analyzed that the software of sales

forecasting would have a format of dashboard in which statistics & charts are clearly visible

on the single page.

For Maintenance of sheets of marketing off stock the system may be designed which it

activates orders when level of stock arrives point of order for distinct items of the material

and test items that are moving slow and provides record of various stock items.

For Computation of wages It is very clear that in recent time, computer systems help in

operations of the Company like computation of wages, ledger maintenance and invoicing etc.

With the implementation of the computer systems in each of the three stores it enables the

accountant of the store to calculate accurate wages by using excel feature and spreadsheets.

Required:

Proposed an information system suitable for Andrew's company. Elaborate the features and

characteristics of the information system in a detailed report.

Include the following in the report:-

Introduction on Accounting Information Systems.

[10 marks]

Description of proposed Information System.

[20 marks]

Features and characteristics of the proposed Information system. [20 marks]